Florida West Coast Bromeliad Society This Month’s Meeting April 2006 Our next meeting will be the first Tuesday of this month, April 4, 2006, at Hope Presbyterian Church, 1698 S. Belcher Road, Clearwater. The doors open at REMEMBER 7 p.m., and the meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. Please bring a The speaker this month will be Dr. Teresa Bert. Dr. Bert will do a Power Point friend. Guests are presentation on “The ABC’s of Growing Unusual Bromeliads.” Teri has been a always welcome!! member of the Sarasota Bromeliad Society since 1988 and a member of the Caloosahatchee Bromeliad Society since 1997. She served on the Florida Bring a raffle ! Council of Bromeliad Societies for eight years and has held all Executive offices must have on the Council. She served as Director for Florida for the Bromeliad Society names and be sure they are free of International and chaired the BSI Nomination Committee. Teri is a BSI scale. internationally accredited Bromeliad Judge. Her bromeliad collection consists of over 1,500 different types of bromeliads, and she has won top awards in the shows Bring plants for show & tell. of local clubs and BSI World Conferences.

Teri always brings nice plants to sell. She prefers that no one else sell plants at Bring a plant for the friendship this meeting. table.

Last Month’s Meeting Wear your name tag! We would like to thank Mike O’Leary for an excellent presentation on the 25 bromeliads he thinks we should have in our collection. These are the bromeliads WE NEED that Mike says will add pizzazz to your garden: YOUR HELP

Aechmea chantinii ‘Ebony’, Aechmea ‘Medio Picta’ cv. of orlandiana, and Food for the Aechmea orlandiana (Pink) refreshment table Billbergia ‘Hallelujah’, and Billbergia ‘Ralph Graham French’ cv. of vittata has been light the past few meetings. Cryptanthus ‘Pink Starlite’ We always welcome

Dyckia dawsonii any munchies or a small dish you’d Guzmania ‘Encore’ (sport of ‘Symphonie’), and Guzmania zahnii var. like to bring in.

Neoregelia carolinae x concentrica Don’t forget that Neoregelia concentrica var. albo-marginata you receive an extra raffle ticket for your Neoregelia johannis ‘DeRolf’ food contribution. Neoregelia ‘Lorena’ Neoregelia ‘Luna’ Neoregelia ‘Maggies Pride’ Neoregelia ‘Maribel’ Neoregelia ‘Pemiento’ Neoregelia ‘Perfection’ cv. of 'Fosperior' Neoregelia ‘Picasso’ Neoregelia ‘Predator’ Neoregelia ‘Predator’ var.

Quesnelia marmorata

Vriesea bituminosa x saundersii saundersii x bituminosa Vriesea ‘Sunset’ Show & Tell for March 14, 2006 Alton Lee: Aechmea ‘Smoothie’ (a spineless, non-patented form of Aechmea fasciata) Dyckia fosteriana Orthophytum ‘Stardust’ Vriesea schwackeana Gary Lund: Dyckia ( unknown) Andy Price: Neoregelia ‘Beach Party’ Neoregelia ‘Flama’ Neoregelia ‘Screaming Tiger’ Helga Tarver: Guzmania lingulata var. cardinalis Tillandsia aeranthos Tillandsia bradeana (syn. T. abdita) Tillandsia ionantha var. vanhyningii

Neoregelia concentrica Upcoming Events var. albo-marginata

USF Botanic Gardens Spring Plant Festival April 8 + 9, 2006 http://www.cas.usf.edu/garden Refreshments Bill & Marianne Schumacher Bromeliad Society of South Florida Annual Show and Sale are in charge of the April 22 + 23, 2006 refreshments. Food for the Fairchild Tropical Gardens, Coral Gables, FL refreshment table is being http://www.ftg.org/publicprograms/n_events.html provided this month by Mike Gimeno, Ann Kavanagh, Steve 20th Annual Green Thumb Festival Littlefield, Gary & Judy April 29 + 30, 2006 Lund, Jean Newton, and http://www.stpete.org/fun/parks/greenthumb.htm Phyllis Steil.

Bromeliad Society of Central Florida, Mother’s Day Show & Sale May 12 - 14, 2006 Orlando Fashion Square Mall, 3201 E. Colonial Dr., Orlando For details call Betsy McCrory 407/348-2139

Terminology . . . Did You Know?

‘Sport’ - The plant will vary markedly from the normal type. It will show bud variation (a bud is a swelling or projection on a plant which develops the off-shoot) and will produce the same variegations as the parent plant. Sports are usually attributable to mutation (see below). Examples of a sport would be Cryptanthus ‘It’ or Aechmea orlandiana cv. ‘Ensign’, or Vriesea ‘Eden Glade’.

‘Mutant’ - A plant with inheritable characteristics that differs from those of the parent. It has undergone sudden mutation. An example would be a plant suddenly producing an offset with one or more characteristics completely different from the original plant and this, in turn, being able to reproduce itself in succeeding generations. When a variegated off-shoot formed on Aechmea Foster’s Favorite (Aechmea Foster’s Favorite Favorite) or among seedlings of Aechmea orlandiana cv. ‘Ensign’, these were mutants or sports, and so was Neoregelia ‘Fosperior Perfection’.

‘Variant’ - The plant is different in some way from the others of the same kind. This could apply to either a sport or a .

Adapted from: Bromeliad Society of New Zealand Journal of February 2003, Vol. 43 No. 2